Message from the Director
Dear Students and Friends:
The Fall 2014 semester is well underway. The NMU Center for Native American Studies is located in 112 Whitman Hall at the corner of Norway Street and Fair Avenue in Marquette, Michigan. We are currently operating under regular hours so we are open 8:00 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
The NMU Center for Native American Studies offers a holistic curriculum rooted in Native American themes that challenges students to think critically and communicate effectively about Indigenous issues with emphasis on Great Lakes Indigenous perspectives; stimulates further respectful inquiry about Indigenous people; and provides active learning and service learning opportunities that strengthen student engagement, interaction, and reciprocity with Indigenous communities.
There are five primary themes within Native American Studies at NMU: 1) culture, history andlanguage; 2) traditional ecological knowledge; 3) education, families and communities; 4) governance and sovereignty with the theme of 5) identity being connected to all previous four listed themes.
Why do I believe in Native American Studies? I believe in Native American Studies because as a discipline it raises a critical consciousness of how individually and collectively we identify ourselves, how we treat one another, how we recognize our relationship with our environment and how we create policy in relation to all of these things. I believe in Native American Studies because it forces me as an author, educator, and lifelong learner to think outside of the conventional academic box; a system that has previously excluded Indigenous voices.it is time for these voices to be heard, to be discussed, and to be honored.
In the area of academics and research, Native American Studies at NMU offers the following:
- over 25 courses in the discipline of Native American Studies (NAS),
- a twenty-four credit inter-disciplinary minor,
- a certification in American Indian Education,
- a concentration of online courses towards a Masters in Education Administration,
- several courses that fulfill liberal studies and the world cultures requirements,
- opportunities to publish in The Anishinaabe News
- a resource room filled with books, articles, films and more (special thanks to the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and the NMU College of Arts and Sciences for their support of the resource room), and
- an outdoor fire site for NAS classroom visits (other NMU classes, student organizations and community organizations can reserve the fire site by calling 906-227-1397).
To learn more about the NAS minor, view this video, NAS Minor Video, produced by NMU’s Academic and Career Advisement Center featuring student, Alice Snively. To learn more about the Center for Native American Studies, view this video, 2013 CNAS Video, featuring yours truly.
We do our best to post information relevant to Native American Studies including internship opportunities, scholarships and grants, conferences and cultural events, language lessons and news bits. Do you have news you would like to share? E-mail us at least two weeks prior to your event. Be sure to visit the NMU Center for Native American Studies on Facebook and Flickr.
Sincerely,
April E. Lindala, NMU Alum '97, '03, '06
Director of the NMU Center for Native American Studies
Associate Professor of English